The Deal
by Taylor1000
Summary: The Courier goes down to Goodsprings for Mr House to make a deal with several traders regarding New Vegas, where he tries to avoid an assassination attempt by the Brotherhood of Steel while the town is attacked by Remnants of the Legion.
1. Orders

_Hey, I just want to clear up some things about the story before I start. The Story is set a few years after the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, after the Courier helped capture it for Mr House, and wiped out Caesar and the Legate, though General Oliver and the NCR were convinced to pull out. The Courier is male, has the Cannibal perk and is fond of alcohol. Thanks!_

The Courier sat in an armchair at the Cocktail bar in the Lucky 38, a bottle of whiskey clenched tightly in his hands. Rex sat by his side, panting. He heard the elevator doors open, and saw a Securitron drive in.

"Hello, Sir! Your presence is requested in the penthouse." It said in its monotonous, mechanical voice, an angry face of a soldier smoking a cigar stuck on the monitor.

Mr House had several lieutenants, but he was the favourite. The other lieutenants were Cachino, from the Omerta's, Marjorie from the Ultra-Luxe, Pearl from the Boomers, Lieutenant Palmer, who represented the NCR Traders, the King from Freeside and Swank from the Tops. Mr House and the lieutenants met regularly about deals. Mr House also invited several other key members to these meetings, like Primm Slim from Prim, Marcus from Jacobstown, Julie Farkas from the Followers of the Apocalypse, Cliff Briscoe from Novac and Victor from Goodsprings. Trudy had originally been Goodsprings' representative, but after deciding nothing important was happening at the meetings, started sending Victor instead to avoid going.

The Courier stood up, throwing the whiskey bottle into the air. In an instant, he drew his Magnum, an old gift from a wandering musician, and fired. The bottle burst into tiny shards of glass, and the courier walked into the elevator and started heading up to Mr House room. The doors whirred open, and he walked out.

"Evening, Jane." He said, not bothering to look up, as she was ever-present when he visited Mr House.

He walked down the stairs, and in front of a giant monitor, a moustachioed face looking down on him, flanked by two Securitrons.

"Hello again." Mr House said through speakers situated next to the monitor.

"What is it this time? The Casino Bosses have all given their allegiance, the NCR aren't causing trouble and I just took down a Legion Raiding party. They're little more than bandits nowadays."

The Courier wondered if this was about the NCR. They had officially left New Vegas years ago, but not wanting to lose access to the resources in the Mojave, they set up trading outposts in their old camps, mostly staffed by the Rangers and Soldiers who had previously worked there. Everyone knew the soldiers were a failsafe should Mr House attack the NCR, but Mr House made sure they that the outposts didn't get enough weapons of ammos to be even a small threat, and imposed huge taxes on them as well.

"Trading caravans. There are several new companies wishing to enter my territory. I believe they're called the Blue Angels, the Vault City Convoy and the Friendly Lending Caravan Company. They've refused to pay the taxes necessary, so I've called a meeting. It'll be in Goodsprings, your old home. I want you to take eight Securitrons up there and make sure they pay up. If not, I'm sure you can replace them with someone who pays."

Yeah, I'll get it done." The Courier said, before turning and walking back into the elevator. He took the elevator down to his suite, and began packing up supplies. He took a Legion blade, the Liberator, a brutal sword he had taken as his price in the capture of Nelson. He grabbed ammo for his Magnum, and his personal favourite, the Incinerator. He took lots of Whiskey and Nuka Cola, and some junk food for the trip. Then, he got into his power armour, an ancient Enclave variant, and put on a Cowboy hat and sunglasses. He opened a crate full of gecko steak and put into the spare bedroom, where Rosie and half a dozen cyber-puppies were sleeping. He filled several bowls with purified water for the dogs, and woke up Boone, who was sleeping in his bed.

"Boone, we're leaving. We have to go negotiate with some traders at Goodsprings."

Then, he walked down to the underground car park, where his car was waiting. It was an old Dune Buggy from before the war, and it was probably one of the only working models in the entire wasteland. He had been given it as a gift from Mr House. Finding fuel was a hassle, and it spent most of the time broken, as the only person who fixed things like that was Raul the Ghoul, and he spend most of his time out hunting the Vipers, the Jackals and any other bandit gangs that entered, but whenever he stopped off in town he would fix up the car. When Raul wasn't there, there was a Mister Handsy who tried to maintain it. Luckily, the dune buddy was working.

The Buddy had two seats, one for the Courier, and one for Boone, who would have Rex on his lap. The Securitrons would have to find their own way there. The Buggy was originally orange, but dust and weather had scraped off all the paint, and now it was just rust.

"Boone, start the car up. I'll get the Securitrons ready."

The Courier walked out to the strip. After the Second Battle of Hover Dam, Mr House had given him a detachment of robots, including two dozen Securitrons, six Protectrons and two Mister Gutsy's. He picked a random six Securitrons, and ordered them to head to Goodsprings and await orders. Then, he walked back to the car, and headed off to Goodsprings.


	2. Traders

Goodsprings was doing well. Trade had increased, and the town's meagre population had nearly doubled. The Courier stopped in the bar, and began drinking, while Boone and Rex searched the area for hostiles. After a few hours, the Securitrons finally showed up, and set up a perimeter around the bar. The Merchants weren't showing up until the morning, so he went over to Victor's shack, and went to sleep on his couch after telling him he was here under Mr House's orders. He lay down, and within seconds he was fast asleep.

His sleep was pleasant. His dreamed of hunting Bighorners in Zion. He was about to take down an especially large one when he was ambushed by Ghost People, waking him up. He shook his head wearily, and began walking to the bar. Rex followed him, while Boone took position on top of the General Store, in case something went wrong. The Vault City Convoy's representatives were waiting there. Two large men armed with submachine guns, and a slender, mean looking man wearing a dirty suit. The Courier walked into the bar, past two Securitrons guarding the door, sat down in a booth with two more Securitrons flanking him, watching the men. The other Securitrons were patrolling the streets, should reinforcements for the traders come.

"If you want to trade in New Vegas, you have to pay tax. What aspect of that don't you understand?"

The skinny man frowned.

"The Tax is too high. We'll pay half of it, and even at that we'll barely be making a profit." He said.

"You can cut back on security. Mr House will make sure your traders are protected."

"We need the security to get to the Mojave!"

"Then start pressuring your investors for more caps."

"Our investors nearly pulled out when we announced we were opening trade links with New Vegas. We can't pay the tax. We'll pay half, and I'm starting to regret that. You'll be the ones losing out if we stop trading." The Man said.

The Courier snarled. "I have two other meetings with traders today. Pay the tax, or fuck off and get your guys out of here by tonight, because anyone left after will be shot."

One of the guards stepped forward, putting spiked knuckledusters on his fists. The Courier drew his gun and aimed. He fired, the guard's head exploding in a mist of blood. The second guard cocked his weapon, but a shot came through the window, hitting through his arm. The gun dropped to the floor, and the guard took a shot to the leg from Boone. He let out a scream, and the slender man caught him before he fell.

"We'll pay! For the love of God, you'll get your caps!"

"Mr House will be expecting a delivery. Get your friend out of here before he bleeds to death. There's a doctor up the road, find him."

The slender man dragged off his wounded guard, and the Courier ordered a whiskey. He drank a few more, and the Friendly Lending Caravan Company arrived. Their meeting was considerably more boring, and ended with them getting a tax discount of twenty percent for the first six months, before going down to ten percent discount. They definitely knew how to barter. The Courier waited for the Blue Angels in the bar, and after several more drinks noticed that it was nearly night. He sent Boone up the road to scout if they were coming. They weren't. Then, he ordered four Securitrons to guard the roads to make sure the Blue Angels didn't sneak up on them, and went to bed again.

Rex's barking woke the Courier up. He grabbed his gun and ran outside, where two injured traders were trying to convince the Securitrons they weren't attacking. The Courier walked up to them.

"What happened?" He asked.

"We were ambushed. Bandits. They asked for our energy weapons, and we refused. We outnumbered them, but they crushed us. They had Power Suits and energy weapons. We didn't stand a chance." One of the Traders said.

"How long ago?"

"About an hour. The weirdest thing was, they weren't on the main road. We took an alternative route through the desert to avoid a raiding party who looked like the Legion, and found them sneaking along towards here."

"Shit. We have heavily armed bandits and a legion raiding party to deal with. We need to set up defences, and get these guys to Doc Mitchells."

"We can draw the Legion Raiders into the bandits, and have them take out each other. Boone can…"

A Securitron exploded as a minigun began firing. The Courier turned, and saw five Brotherhood of Steel Paladins in full armour charging towards them.


	3. Legionnaires

The Brotherhood of Steel had hated the Courier since they first met, mainly because they first met as he destroyed their main base. It made sense that they were attacking Goodsprings to get to him, and had probably attacked the Blue Angels to confiscate there weapons as they weren't deemed worthy of having such powerful weapons. The Courier grabbed the large Incinerator on his back, and fired several shots towards them. Two of the Paladins were engulfed in flames. The group moved behind some old houses to take cover, but Rex grabbed one of the flaming paladins and knocked him over, allowing the Securitrons open fire and ripe the Paladin to pieces with their machine guns.

There was a small ceasefire as both groups took cover and got ready to fight. They both waited for the other team to attack, so they could fight from the cover. The ceasefire lasted until the sun began to rise. The Courier edged out, and noticed that he could see the leg of a paladin just sitting out now that the sun was up. He whispered his observation to Boone in a hushed voice, who took aim and fired. The Paladin screamed as the shots penetrated his armour and crippled his leg. Then the one of the Paladins shouted something, and they began to retreat, running from house to house to use as cover. The Courier looked to where they were running from, and noticed a group of several dozen soldiers, all dressed in Legion armour, sprinting towards the town. The Legionnaires attacked the Paladins first, as they were closest. Most were already far away enough to escape the fire, but the Paladin who the Courier had crippled had fallen, and Legion Explorers quickly ran up and grabbed him, dragging him back.

"We need to go. We'll fall back to Goodsprings Cave, and plan what to do next there."

"If we abandon the town, the Legion will torture and kill everyone here." Boone said, snarling toward the Legion.

"Rex, lead four Securitrons to the cave. I'll stay here with Boone, and see how many Legionnaires we can ambush before we need to retreat." The Courier said.

Rex immediately turned, and began sprinting in the direction of Goodsprings cave, as the Legion seemed to notice them, and sent four Explorers after them, but the Courier knew they would easily be taken care of as long as the main force stayed here. The Courier led Boone and Rex behind an old abandoned Building, and pried the boards nailed across a window off and climbed inside. The Securitron had to be lifted inside sideways due to his size, but he made it through none the less, so they blocked off the window again and waited.

The Courier soon got bored, and started attempting to hack the Securitron. He found that the face was easily changeable, and replaced it with a yellow smiley face. Then he found a bunch of personalities, like Generic, Female, Happy, Cowboy, Babysitter and one that said "DEATH TO BIRDS!", which he was afraid to try, so he switched it to happy.

"It's an improvement, right?" He asked, but Boone didn't seem interested.

"Look at the Brotherhood of Steel Soldier."

The Courier peered out the window. The Paladin had been nailed onto two boards of wood in the shape of a cross, and two legionnaires were nailing that to the wall.

"They're crucifying him." The Courier said. "We need to do something fast, before that starts happening to the locals. Boone, get up on the roof and take aim. When I signal, start shooting. As soon as they notice where you are, jump down and make a run for the car."

"Got it." Said Boone, who went for the roof.

"And you, Happy, follow me. We'll go…" The Courier said, before the door was kicked in.

Two legionnaires entered, and the Courier drew his sword and beheaded one in a single stroke. Happy rammed into the other, and the Courier stepped on his throat so he couldn't scream. He jabbed the sword through his eye, and quickly twisted it, destroying the legionnaires' brain. He dragged the bodies into the kitchen, and left them there, out of sight. He peeked out the window again, and noticed the Legionnaires were searching houses. One of them was carrying a barrel out of a house while another dragged out Easy Pete. A small, red cylinder fell out of the barrel that the Courier easily recognised as dynamite. A couple legionnaires surrounded the dynamite, and started counting it. He grabbed his Incinerator and took aim. At this range it wasn't accurate, but he could fire enough shots that one would hit before they returned fire.

"When the dynamite goes off, we move and see if we can make out of their range and head to the cave. Got it?"

"Yes, Sir!" Happy said cheerfully. "It'll be like fireworks at a parade! And if we win, hopefully there'll be more fireworks, at an actual parade!"

The Courier opened fire, sending several fireballs towards the legionnaires. The first few hit the sand, but one flew past the legionnaire dragging Easy Pete and scorched the legionnaires' face, causing Easy Pete to dive out of his grip and run back to the houses. A fireball went into the barrel, and the Courier sprinted across to the other houses as the barrel exploded, wiping out the surrounding legionnaires. Boone opened fire, and took out several more legionnaires, as the Courier drew his magnum and started firing, and Happy aimed his rockets and let of a barrage in the direction of the legion.

They sprinted as fast as they could off into the desert, hoping that the legionnaires were too confused to get their act together and give chase. The Courier heard the rumbling of an engine, and Boone drove up behind them. The Courier pushed Smiley onto the back, and Happy hooked onto it and hung off the back. The Courier pulled himself in, but he fell into the sand as something thumped his back. At first he thought someone had punched him, but he realized quickly that a barrage of minigun fire had hit him. Minigun fire from a group of three charging Paladins, back for their second attempt on his life.


	4. Victory

_Hey, it's me again. Thank you so much for reading. If you could, I'd love to get some comments and know what I'm doing wrong and what I should keep doing. Again, thanks for reading, it means a lot._

The Courier yelled at Boone to keep going, and rolled to the side and sprinted back to the houses. He ducked under fire from both sides, slightly hoping that the Brotherhood and Legion would take each other out. He dived into the house he had sheltered in earlier, and to his delight the Legionnaires had attacked Brotherhood in an attempt to the circle the house. This joy was short lived, however, when he heard a deep growling. Standing in the kitchen, his snout covered in blood. He must have been eating the dead legionnaires in the kitchen when the Courier disturbed him. The Courier's first thought was that the Legion must be training the dogs less and less for one to start eating it's masters. His second thought was that he should run as fast as he could back to the Strip and let damn Mr House make his own deals. The dog slowly crept towards him, and snarled. The Courier was usually good with animals, but this one seemed wild. Still, as an Animal Friend, he would rather not kill it.

"There, there. Calm down. You're not so bad. You're kinda cute. I'll call you Face-Eater."

Face-Eater growled. He didn't like the name. The Courier gingerly stuck out his hand, and Face-Eater sniffed it. Then the Courier rubbed him gently, and it seemed to relax. Suddenly, a Brotherhood of Steel Paladin kicked open the door. His armour was covered in scorch marks from their earlier fight, and he clenched a legionnaire with a snapped neck in his hands. Face-Eater barked, and leapt onto the Paladin's face. The Paladin let out a scream, and was knocked in another room, while the Courier grabbed his Magnum. Then, he heard a voice.

"The sun is especially nice today! It's good to be alive!"

He looked outside, and saw Happy, Rex, Boone and Victor, who had been at the Strip updating Mr House, leading another three Securitrons towards them. There was a burst of laser fire, machine guns and rockets as the remaining dozen legionnaires retreated, half of them falling before they could escape. Boone dropped to his knee and aimed his rifle, firing another few shots at the remaining few, who all fell soon after. The two Brotherhood of Steel Paladins charged, but one was badly injured in the firefight with legionnaires and was cut down by laser fire, and the other only managed a few shots with his laser rifle before he was killed in a barrage of rockets. The Courier heard a scream coming from behind him, and turned around to see Face-Eater chewing the helmet off his captured paladin. The Courier thought about helping the injured man, but he figured Face-Eater deserved this.

"We'll head back to the Strip, update Mr House. OK?" He said to Boone.

"Yeah." Boone said, the slightest trace of a smile on his face as he looked over the dead legionnaires.

"Victor! Take three Securitrons and make sure the legionnaires don't have reinforcements coming. I doubt it, but it's better safe than sorry. Oh, and put that crucified paladin out of his misery."

"OK, Pardner!" Victor said, whirring off.

The Courier climbed into his car, and ordered Smiley and another Securitron to head back to the Strip, before picking up Rex and putting him on his lap, and telling Boone to drive.

Mr House was pretty happy about how the day had went. Two of the Caravans had agreed to pay the taxes, and the third would probably pay to get the protection of Securitrons, as they already lost most of their guards due to the Brotherhood. Mr House was especially happy that the Brotherhood of Steel and the Legion had taken some heavy losses, as the Brotherhood hated his use of Securitrons, and the Legion were the major raiders of the Mojave now, and had been since the Second Battle of Hoover Dam. The Courier went off to the Lucky 38 Presidential Suite, and after stuffing his face with cram and vodka he went into his bed and slept, glad the Deal was over.


	5. New Vegas Situation

Hey, I'm sorry to say I've stopped writing the Deal. But, I'm focusing on a longer, much better story called the New Vegas Situation, so if you checked out that it'd be great.


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